Technical Field
The disclosure relates to the field of automatic separation of items. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to the automatic singulation of articles from a bulk stack of articles.
Description of the Related Art
Articles, such as items of mail, are frequently provided in bulk and must be separated in order to properly sort and route each article. The process of separating a bulk stack of articles into individual articles, known as singulation, can be done automatically by placing the bulk stack of articles into a feeder. Current feeders include one or more conveyor belts for moving the articles, as well as a vacuum for applying suction to one side of an article piece positioned at the front of the bulk stack. This suction works to separate the lead article from the remainder of the bulk stack. The lead article can then be moved by a conveyor belt in a direction different from the direction of the bulk stack. Such a design frequently causes problems when used to sort some articles, such as magazines, catalogs, and other similar items having a plurality of unbound edges. The vacuum often applies suction to only a front portion of such articles, thereby inducing only the front portion to move in a different direction than the remainder of the bulk stack. In such situations, at least some of the internal pages and the back cover resist the directional change in motion, possibly resulting in folding, tearing, and/or other damage to the article.